One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years (John 5:5)
There are three things we have to note about this man at the pool of Bethesda:-
First, his illness was chronic. For thirty-eight long years he had been helpless. Here is a great thing. It does not matter how deep-seated a trouble may be or how incurable it may seem, Jesus can cure it. Suppose there is a habit which has got such a grip on us that it seems impossible to break it, Jesus can enable us to break it. Suppose there is some fear that has haunted us until it has become a complex, Jesus can enable us to conquer it.
Second, this man had no friends. He must have had some people who carried him and his bed to the pool every day. But long since they must have become weary of him and lost interest in his case. Perhaps at the beginning some of them had waited to help him into the water when it was disturbed; but long since they had taken to dumping him down at the pool and leaving him. At the end his friends abandoned him.
People who mattered to no one else mattered most to Jesus. In Jesus the friendless ever found a friend. When people vacate your life, they are actually giving God space to act upon your life.
Third, the most significant thing about this man is that somehow he had never totally lost hope. After thirty-eight years of waiting beside the pool he was still waiting. By all the probabilities he should have abandoned hope long ago but somehow hope would not die. Once we give up hope, certainly nothing will happen; so long as we hope on, the door is always open for a miracle to happen.
To achieve anything, the first essential is to desire it.
To God be the glory.
Rev B Chinhara
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